Two of China's most adventurous Web logs reappeared on Thursday, a day
after apparently being shut down by government censors.

The blogs, belonging to Beijing-based journalist Wang Xiaofeng and to
entertainment reporter Yuan Lei, from the southern city of Guangzhou,
carried messages saying they had been temporarily closed, but they
were both accessible again on Thursday.

"I like telling jokes, but this really wasn't a joke and it wasn't
meant to deceive everyone," read a new post on Wang's blog, known as
"Massage Milk."

But Wang, who blogs under the name "Dai San Ge Biao," a play on former
leader Jiang Zemin's Three Represents, or "San Ge Dai Biao" political
slogan, is known for his political satire, raising the possibility
that the closure may have been a prank.

Yuan Lei's blog, called "Milk Pig" and known for its gossipy posts
about the entertainment scene, carried no new messages.

Both are hosted on the domestic Yculblog.com.

The closures coincided with China's annual 10-day session of its
rubber-stamp parliament, when political controls are tightened as
leaders descend on Beijing.

They also fit a pattern of stepped up monitoring of the Internet. The
blog of Michael Anti, an outspoken political blogger, was shut down
under government orders in December and several Internet writers have
been jailed over the sensitive content of e-mails and postings.